I, too, see this as a big deal, and I always have. If they're going to keep cutting back and cutting back, all I can say is they better be ready to build multi-level parking garages to handle the extra traffic from the stranded transit riders...

Not to mention, public transit should be seen and used as an engine to drive economic development and land development. Apparently, it looks like this engine is running out of gas due to Harrisburg siphoning the fuel supply...

And increased traffic and parking issues are only part of the problem, at that. Cutting off access -- any access -- to the urban core, is akin to cutting off veins and arteries going to and from the heart. A seemingly-minor stoppage can result in exponential and widespread effects -- not apparent on the surface.

This point is precisely in line with your comment about driving economic/land development. Make it more difficult or completely cut off some demand fwoor any good or service in the core, and you're going to make development more difficult in kind.

And Harrisburg does not shoulder all the blame here. Terrible mismanagement locally for decades is producing pressures now. Add some of the highest-paid public transit employees on average in the nation and a broke city and an overwhelming number of competing municipalities in the Port Authority's coverage area, and you have all the fixins for trouble.

This is a problem with far-reaching consequences that must be addressed, if Pittsburgh is to maintain its "in" status and progress to become, dare I say it, "Portland-esque"... or it will continue to be the same old story of how Pittsburgh region is scenic, "liveable", and cheap... with a good football team.